Q: Coalburg Road is absolutely awful between Daniel Payne and Corridor X. There are several huge potholes. This section of road has become dangerous. If a car is coming from the other direction, you have to come to a complete stop. I would think that it wouldn't be too much trouble to send someone out with a shovel and some asphalt mix to patch them.

A: Coalburg Road, also called County Road 77, hopscotches between Birmingham city limits and Jefferson County. This part between Daniel Payne Drive and Corridor X is definitely a city thing.

The city has done some patching recently, but driving Coalburg remains a bit of a vehicular waltz, going up-down and side-to-side while rattling through necessary artful swerves.

Coalburg existed long before Corridor X -- the future Interstate 22 -- began angling through the hills toward Interstate 65. As the last turn from the completed section of the new interstate, Coalburg is serving an added purpose that outstretches its design.

In other words, it gets a good bit of wear and tear, according to Don Lupo, director of the mayor's office of citizens assistance.

"There's just so much more traffic on that road than there used to be," Lupo said. "That road was not built to handle as much traffic."

The city will continue to patch as new craters dent the surface, Lupo said. Little comfort to the drivers who must do the daily slow traffic waltz there.

Oh, but look ahead. Lupo put it best: "There's light at the end of the tunnel."

Dream with me, for a bit. How about a nice, wide, paved Coalburg complete with a center lane to remove turning vehicle obstacles along the way?

It's coming -- or at least we're about as near to a new road as we've ever been.

Coalburg Road is on the list to get additional lanes between Daniel Payne Drive and Corridor X. The 2.3-mile-long redo is a joint effort of the city and the Alabama Department of Transportation and will cost about $8 million, ALDOT records show.

The project has surfaced on Birmingham City Council agendas dating back to 2010 for utility easements and that sort of thing.

When, exactly? I don't know. As of right now, the state plans to seek bids on the project as early as April. If that happens it could mean construction this summer, as state road work schedules go.

The project's place on the priority list could change, depending on just how ready things are to proceed, whether the money's there, etc. But you gotta admit, it's something to look forward to.

Road rubbish: Roads can be catchalls for all kinds of stuff. In the past three weeks, there has been enough to partially furnish a small studio apartment:

a grill on U.S. 280

a mattress in the roadway at Coalburg Road and Daniel Payne Drive.

an ottoman on U.S. 78 in Irondale

barrels along I-65 near Green Springs

large boxes along I-65 near Oxmoor Rd

a set of shelves in the road along I-459 at Montgomery Highway

I'm sure no one intends to leave that stuff behind for the rest of us to swerve around or hit. Still, state law requires you to secure your loads. For extra incentive, the state assigns the offense Class C misdemeanor status and can assess a fine of up to $500, state statutes show.

And that's just stuff falling off vehicles onto the roads -- not being tossed out of windows. (Tsk, tsk.) We'll hit that topic later.

Name games: Fun topic came up in Twitterland. When the Red Mountain Expressway was doing its best imitation of U.S. 280 one afternoon, the suggestion came up that it could use a nickname, like Malfunction Junction for the downtown intersection of I-20/59 and I-65. Suggestions:

"Dread Mountain Expressway" (Jerry Smith - @JSmith8505)

"Trail of Tears" (Jeff Holmes - @RTR31323132)

"Dysfunction Junction" or "Malfunction Junction II" - me

Got any others for the RME or anywhere else? Let me know.

Traffic Mike writes about traffic and roads in the Birmingham area. Contact Mike D. Smith at msmith@al.com, @TrafficMike_BHM on Twitter or (205) 209-2878.